Jaya targets 11% growth rate by 2023

CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday unveiled her vision to take the state on a high growth trajectory by charting out various initiatives, including universa­l access to infrastructure services to the tune of Rs 15 lakh crore in the next 11 years. Releasing the Vision 2023 document before a packed audience, which included trade captains, bureaucrats, ministers and consul generals, she urged the non-governmental sources, including private-sector organisations, banks and foreign direct investors to help meet the resource requirements to transform the state and take it to the numero uno position.Quoting French poet, playwright and novelist Victor Hugo, Jayalalithaa said, “‘No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.’ I want to say that the emergence of Tamil Nadu as a major economic power happens to be one such idea.”She said that over the next 11 years, TN would aim to increase its GDP at a growth rate of 11 per cent per annum­—about 20 per cent more than India’s expected GDP growth rate in the same period. “Given the expected inc­rease in population of 15 per cent over the next 11 years, increase in per capita income would amount to six times over this period,” she said.Stating that 11 per cent growth rate was an achievable goal, she said that in 2005-06 the state clocked an impressive growth of 13.95 per cent, while manufacturing sector hit an all-time high growth of 15.10 per cent. “Although this growth momentum decelerated in subsequent years, there is no reason to believe that we cannot reclaim the high growth path,” she said, adding that Tamil Nadu would be able to increase its per capita income at today’s prices by six times to reach Rs 4.5 lakh or $10,000 in 2023 in line with per capita income of upper middle income countries.